Newsletter

Week Ahead: Now every bill gets new scrutiny

ATLANTA — Clearing last Wednesday’s Crossover Day milestone puts the General Assembly in its second phase of bill scrutiny.

After two long days in session last week, lawmakers have been in recess since Wednesday night. They return today at 10 a.m. for business as well as Tuesday and Wednesday before recessing Thursday and Friday.

Two major bills exempt from the Crossover deadline are likely to come up for floor votes soon. One is the sweeping criminal-justice reforms recommended by a special council appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal. The other is the repeal of the sales tax on energy used in manufacturing recommended by Deal’s Competitiveness Initiative.

General legislation that remained viable after Wednesday’s midnight deadline survived the microscope of a standing committee and the full membership of the chamber where it was introduced. Now those bills get the same treatment by committees on the other side of the Capitol.

The House will review the Senate bills that passed and vice versa.

Although the first chamber had 30 days for hearings and consideration, just seven days remain for committees in the second chamber. The last three days of the session are required for each chamber’s rules committee to schedule a floor vote and for resolution of differences in the House and Senate versions.

Legislators will be busy starting Monday scurrying between meetings of the committees they are on in their own chamber and the meetings of committees where their bills have been assigned in the other. Since the procedures and personalities are different in the House and Senate, bills can die after Crossover if their sponsors aren’t adept at navigating the gauntlets of both chambers in the narrow time frame.

As of Friday, few committees have scheduled to meet, but that’s certain to change Monday. For instance, the Senate gets its first crack at the budget for next year now that the House has passed it, but the Senate Appropriations Committee has nothing scheduled so far.

One committee with a full slate of Senate bills to consider is the House Natural Resources. Among the measures it will review are bills to allow hunting with silencers and limiting the number of permits issued for commercial crabbing.

The Senate Transportation Committee reviews four House bills, including one making it a felony to flee from a pursuing police car. And the Senate Education & Youth Committee votes on a measure to strip teachers of pay raises and bonuses earned through test cheating.

Caucuses will be on the go in the session’s home stretch. The Working Families Caucus has already scheduled a working lunch Tuesday “to beat back bad bills and promote passing pro-working family bills,” according to executive director Elizabeth Appley.

Most of the ceremonies surrounding the General Assembly peter out late in the session. Still, the Governor’s Agriculture Awareness Day is Tuesday across from the Capitol in which small, food processors from around the state compete for the tastiest sauces, snacks and desserts sold in Georgia.

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP BUTLER, Okinawa, Japan — Marine Corps Captain James E. Frederick, who ejected from a Marine F/A-18 on Dec. 7, was pronounced dead after his body was found during search and rescue operations.